Jewish Religious Zionism

Abstract

As widely reported at the time by mainstream press and media, the new Democratic administration taking power in the White House was determined to instantiate a ‘wave of change’ in US foreign policy towards the Middle East. In his hallmark speech ‘A New Beginning’, delivered at Cairo University on 4 June 2009, the newly elected president Barack Obama spoke about the ‘intolerable humiliations’ endured by the Palestinian people, whilst promising that America ‘will not turn her back on their legitimate aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own’. With that purpose in mind, Obama pledged to work assiduously towards the diplomatic goal of a ‘two-state solution’: a shorthand for a final settlement envisaging the establishment of an independent state of Palestine within pre-1967 borders in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem — a state alongside which Israel would live in peace and security. In the same speech, the president made it clear that ‘the United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.’1 According to many commentators, Obama’s rhetoric signalled, with its decisive tone and straightforward message, a true break with the past, suggesting that a divergence might exist between American and Israeli interests in that area — a possibility that had been considered a ‘virtual taboo’ since the end of the Cold War.